Biology subjects

Yener, G.

Publications and source records attributed to Yener, G..

3 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2026

The Lifespan Architecture of Human EEG

Human brain maturation and aging are highly nonlinear, yet their organization at the level of large-scale electrophysiological activity remains poorly understood. We analyzed resting-state electroencephalography (EEG) recordings from 1,763 healthy individuals aged 5-85 years to map lifespan trajectories across spectral, complexity, and morphological features. Age-sensitive features clustered into distinct nonlinear trajectories, most commonly showing rapid change during childhood and adolescence followed by stabilization in adulthood, while a smaller subset exhibited turning points in midlife. These trajectories also differed in their spatial expression, ranging from highly conserved scalp-wide patterns to heterogeneous profiles in which the same feature followed distinct trajectories across scalp regions. Transition ages revealed recurring regional sequences, suggesting that diverse EEG features share common reorganization chronologies. Together, these results show that lifespan EEG variation is structured through complementary temporal trajectories, spatial architectures, and regional transition sequences. This normative framework provides a basis for investigating brain development and aging and for identifying atypical patterns associated with neurological and psychiatric disorders.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Characterizing the heterogeneity of neurodegenerative diseases through EEG normative modeling

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinsons (PD) and Alzheimers (AD) exhibit considerable heterogeneity of functional brain features within patient populations, complicating diagnosis, treatment, prognosis, and drug discovery. Here, we use electroencephalography (EEG) and normative modeling to investigate neurophysiological oscillatory mechanisms underpinning this heterogeneity. To this aim, we use resting-state EEG activity collected by 14 clinical units, in healthy older persons (n=499) and patients with PD (n=237) and AD (n=197), aged over 40 years old. Spectral and source connectivity analyses of EEG activity provided EEG features for normative modeling and deviation measures in the PD and AD patients. Normative models confirmed significant deviations of the EEG features in PD and AD patients over population norms, characterized by high heterogeneity and frequency-dependence. The percentage of patients with at least one deviating EEG feature was [~]30% for spectral measures and [~]80% for functional source connectivity. Notably, the spatial overlap of the deviant EEG features did not exceed 60% for spectral analysis and 25% for functional source connectivity analysis. Furthermore, the patient-specific deviations were correlated with relevant clinical measures, such as the UPDRS for PD (=0.24, p=0.025) and the MMSE for AD (=-0.26, p=0.01), indicating that greater deviations from normative EEG features are associated with worsening score values. These results suggest that the deviation percentage from EEG norms may enrich clinical assessment in PD and AD patients at individual levels in the framework of Precision Neurology.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2019

A comparison of resting state EEG and structural MRI for classifying Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment

Alzheimers disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterised by severe cognitive decline and loss of autonomy. AD is the leading cause of dementia. AD is preceded by mild cognitive impairment (MCI). By 2050, 68% of new dementia cases will occur in low- and middle-income countries. In the absence of objective biomarkers, psychological assessments are typically used to diagnose MCI and AD. However, these require specialist training and rely on subjective judgements. The need for low-cost, accessible and objective tools to aid AD and MCI diagnosis is therefore crucial. Electroencephalography (EEG) has potential as one such tool: it is relatively inexpensive (cf. magnetic resonance imaging; MRI) and is portable. In this study, we collected resting state EEG, structural MRI and rich neuropsychological data from older adults (55+ years) with AD, with MCI and from healthy controls (n~60 per group). Our goal was to evaluate the utility of EEG, relative to MRI, for the classification of MCI and AD. We also assessed the performance of combined EEG and behavioural (Mini-Mental State Examination; MMSE) and structural MRI classification models. Resting state EEG classified AD and HC participants with moderate accuracy (AROC=0.76), with lower accuracy when distinguishing MCI from HC participants (AROC=0.67). The addition of EEG data to MMSE scores had no additional value compared to MMSE alone. Structural MRI out-performed EEG (AD vs HC, AD vs MCI: AROCs=1.00; HC vs MCI: AROC=0.73). Resting state EEG does not appear to be a suitable tool for classifying AD. However, EEG classification accuracy was comparable to structural MRI when distinguishing MCI from healthy aging, although neither were sufficiently accurate to have clinical utility. This is the first direct comparison of EEG and MRI as classification tools in AD and MCI participants.

neuroscience↗